Posted
by
timothy
on Thursday June 21, 2012 @08:32AM
from the we-are-not-amused dept.

Qedward writes "The European Parliament's trade committee, INTA, voted on Thursday not to postpone a crucial parliamentary vote on the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The committee also decided, by 19 votes to 12, to recommend to the Parliament that the trade deal be rejected. INTA is the lead committee examining the international agreement, and its recommendation will carry weight with the rest of the Parliament. The Parliamentary plenary vote on the treaty is now scheduled for July 3."

It was the European Commission who urged the parliament to vote in secret. The European Commission is pushing ACTA, and the parliament is standing up against them. In the press conference after the vote, MEP Amelia Andersdotter of the pirate party actually slammed the commission for trying to interfere with the democratic process at the European Parliament.

If they do vote in private and approve ACTA, despite the Trade Committee's recommendation, I will be writing to my MEP questioning why I should keep him in his seat come the next election, and not spend my time and energy seeing that he is ousted at the first opportunity.

Trust is earned. If I can't trust my representatives, then I need new ones.

If getting Rage Against the Machine to 2010's Christmas No. 1 has taught us anything, it's that all that is required to make changes is organised protest. Hundreds of thousands of people were willing to spend Â£0.99 buying that track on iTunes, buying the album in stores etc. just to ensure that generic Britain's Got Idol Pop Factor artists wouldn't, all because one guy started a Facebook group.

"Â£1 to keep ACTA out of Europe" with the donation proceeds going to coffers of parties or

If getting Rage Against the Machine to 2010's Christmas No. 1 has taught us anything, it's that all that is required to make changes is organised protest. Hundreds of thousands of people were willing to spend Â£0.99 buying that track on iTunes, buying the album in stores etc. just to ensure that generic Britain's Got Idol Pop Factor artists wouldn't, all because one guy started a Facebook group.

It taught us that we could replace one single released by Sony Music Entertainment with another single released by Sony Music Entertainment. In other words, even if we tackle the branches, it does no damage at all to the tree.

Why does such a thing as a secret ballot [europa.eu] even exist in what is supposed to be a democracy? Democratic controls in Europe are tenuous at best, but at least we can see how the guys we voted into office are voting. Except when they don't feel like being held accountable, apparently (only 1/5th of MEPs need to agree to voting in secret)

I'm a pro-Europe constituent, but it's crap like this that casts serious doubts on the way we've implemented "Europe".

What worries me more is regulatory capture [wikipedia.org]. US corporations have been infiltrating federal agencies (FDA, EPA, ICC, FCC just to name a few) to place cronies in top positions who are sympathetic to the corporations rather than serving the public.

Of course the R/MAAFIA would need huge $$$ resources to do this on an international basis and we should be boycotting them to prevent them from using sleazy underhanded tactics to accomplish their greedy evil plans of world domination (look how they purposely shut out public review of ACTA/SOPA).

Not knowing the election/appointment process of the international agencies, just how vulnerable are they to regulatory capture?